Wow! It is time to welcome a new group of young learners to kindergarten. Why we, "Round them UP" I am not sure, but just at the winter turns to spring, it happens every year; Kindergarten Round Up.
This year I have special connections to the incoming class. I gave birth of the little braided one on the left. I visited the handsome young man on the right in the hospital shortly after he entered the world. The son of a good friend, and the brother of two of my kindergarten alumni.
She struggled to nurse and was extremely fussy. He was tiny and under blue lights to help with his jaundice.
Look at them now!
Healthy, happy, hilarious and ready to go!
Plus, they can't wait to eat the cookies served at the end of the night.
Current Kindergartners love the idea that they will be first graders when this new class of young ones fills their classrooms.
Each year the number get bigger and seemingly farther out.
Truth be told, I feel a little older just looking at them.
However, the possibility of what, whom and how we will all be in a year named 2027, is inspiring to me.
A photo opportunity and a welcome to our community. We can't wait to meet you class of 2027!
Last night, was a unexpected school night out. I landed tickets to Peter and the Star Catcher, and took my almost ten-year-old daughter with me. I had no expectations. Frankly, I just wanted to be entertained and have an evening where nothing was expected of me. Selfish? A little, maybe. Act I was a romp on two different pirate ships. A dark tone with awesome use of lighting to build the feel of being held captive. The ensemble of 11 (10 men, 1 woman) was never still, moving flawlessly between characters. They used thick rope bent in different shapes to convey small spaces, movement of water, a boxing ring. Clearly a show you could see again and again and never catch it all.
Act I introduces us to a no-named 13 teen-year-old boy, with budding leadership skills. He meets a girl named Molly, similarly inclined but bossy and together they try to keep a trunk of precious "star stuff" away from some slimy pirates. Act II finds the cast now on an island where wild things are happening. The colors are vivid and bold. The movements are tamed and focused. Some are inevitably beginning to grow-up, while others choose not to.
http://minneapolis.broadway.com
http://minneapolis.broadway.com
http://minneapolis.broadway.com
The feelings conveyed draw you in to a time way, way back when tucked snugly in your own childhood bed listening to a bedtime story. Light airy, heavy if you wanted it to be. Think about it or don't. Simply beautiful. At intermission while avoiding bathroom lines (Do that many people really have to pee?), I happened to open the PlayBill and casually read the cast names. Four lines down one was very familiar to me. I knew he was an actor, but hadn't seen him in years. He was my leading man in Guys and Dolls, and it was the first leading role for both of us growing up in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Could it be the same Nathan Hosner? The Who's Who, led me to believe that yes, this was him. From the balcony in the first glimpse of ACT II I confirmed with I giddiness, that yes this was him! What a magical thing to have our paths cross again all these years later just by chance, and even in the theater.
Mr. Hosner meets my daughter
Nathan, as he goes by now was Nate when we were kids is a classically trained actor who graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Even with the bushy beard, I knew right away. He was tremendous in his many roles in the show accent and all! Marvelous really, twenty years later still so many of the same nuances as when we were in 10th and 11th grade, but now a true professional. Following the performance, there was a post show dialogue with the cast. About a 100 or so gathered down in the first rows. As four of the cast members introduced themselves and rattled off their hometowns, I couldn't help but call out a cheer to Kalamazoo, and shout out my name in the process as Nate took his turn. My daughter was mortified! He hopped down and we visited, took a few photos, talked about the fabulous show. I told him of my continued connections with music and the arts, now as the teacher. It hit me, sitting surrounded by high school drama clubs with their chaperone's waiting in the aisles, just how important it is to follow our own artistic journey.
Here they were, with bated breath waiting to hear my childhood pal tell them what to do if they too, wanted to be an actor.
I was there when he was one of them. And you thought just the show was magical?
Congratulations, Nathan! You'll always be Nate, to me.
It happened! She turned five in early November, and has been bemoaning that she is not a reader for at least three years. Yes, that is pretty much since she was speaking in complete sentences. I suppose that is what happens when you have a big sister and you want to do everything she can do. Suddenly, in the process of working on this early childhood music CD with my friend Dave, it all has come together. She can read!
I wrote a song inspired by her, "I can't read!" complaints. It is called, I Wanna' Read. It is the ode to the small child surrounded by print, in book, signs, cereal and needing to know right now what they all say. The song goes on to teach the concept of sound blends to help children feel successful applying their knowledge of sounds to blending together similar words. We would call these CVC words, consonant, vowel, consonant words. Of course, we don't live in a CVC only world, but all in time.
Even though I experienced these magic moments with my oldest daughter, and then in my classroom many times over the past 14 years, something about the timing of this young reader gets me at the core. The world is opening up to her, and not just books, signs and cereal. Putting it all together and connecting to life in print is such a milestone. What a lucky little girl, and what a lucky mom I am, to get to watch it all unfold.
Congratulations, my littlest one! You are a reader now!
